Heritage Guest Lecture Series

The April lecture series will be presented by Prof Roger C Fisher, retired Emeritus Professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Pretoria. Prof Fischer taught at the Department of Architecture since 1986 and is a well-known academic and historian in South Africa and abroad. He has edited, compiled and contributed to various books and has written for the local architectural press as a critic, as well as on matters of architectural education and history. He has served on several panels for Awards of Merit of both the Institutes of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at both regional and national levels. He has served on various validation panels of South African Schools of Architecture and served on the validation committee of the South African Council for the Architectural Professions [SACAP, now retired member]. From a heritage perspective, he has served both the previous Northern Branch of the NMC and the Mpumalanga Province Heritage Council. In 2010, he was the recipient of the Writers and Critics Award from the South African Institute of Architects and in 2013 the Heritage South Africa Gold Medal. He contributes to the website artefacts.co.za, entries related to the southern African built environment. His ongoing professional involvement is chiefly as a heritage consultant.

His presentation on 20 April is titled; "The hands that made: Authenticity and the absent anonymous authors.”

In this Prof Fisher will look at the issues of heritage and respecting the mainly absent and anonymous authors of our built environment, particularly with reference to ‘Pierneef’s Kraal’ (Gauteng) and ‘Buffelsdrif’ (Western Cape).

Jaco Booyens will join the panel discussion. He is one of the architects that took part in the restoration which won a gold medal at the seventh edition (2019) of the international Domus restoration and Conservation Award in Italy.